"Grande Italia" with Elena Curtoni leading the hat trick
Jan 25, 2020·Alpine Skiing
The Italian team started singing show tunes the national anthem with the heroes of the day that for the fourth time in the 53-year-history of the World Cup took the top three spots in a women's race. It happened in Narvik GS (NOR) - 1996 with Deborah Compagnoni, Sabina Panzanini and Isolde Kostner, Aspen GS (USA) - 2017 with Federica Brignone, Sofia Goggia and Marta Bassino and Bad Kleinkirchheim DH (AUT) 2018 with Sofia Goggia, Federica Brignone, Nadia Fanchini.
Today has been Elena Curtoni's day which made maiden World Cup victory. She started with bib 28, and she mastered the downhill course with a smooth and at the same time aggressive skiing that permitted to beat her Marta Bassino by 0.10 seconds.
Curtoni had been on a World Cup podium three times before, but not since coming runner-up in a super-G in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in February 2017.
Marta Bassino with bib 4 waited her teammates and the favourites throughout the race, and slowly she started realizing that she would get her first career's downhill podium.
Federica Brignone made two mistakes that made her lose the chance to win her first career's downhill race by 0.14 seconds.
Mikaela Shiffrin finished 0.35 behind, with her American teammate Breezy Johnson 0.12 further back in fifth and she closed the gap to downhill leader Corinne Suter in the season's standings to 16 points. The Swiss skier finished the race in ninth.
Shiffrin leads the overall standings and is 270 points clear of Brignone, with Petra Vlhova of Slovakia 335 behind in third.
The speed events in the Bulgarian resort will be concluded with a super-G race on Sunday
